Ovens, washing machines, bread makers and similar appliances take some time to do their job. But, user action is preferred shortly after these appliances are finished, to avoid burned food, wrinkled clothing, or hard bread for example. These devices are typically equipped with an alert function to signal the user when they are done. However, if you are not in the same room at the moment the audio alert goes off you can easily miss it. For this reason several people have thought of having appliances send push notifications to a mobile device. An example of such an appliance is a washing machine sending a notification via a wireless LAN network to a mobile device once the washing machine has completed its task. In this method, the number of the mobile phone needs to be entered upfront into a processor of the washing machine.
Publication WO2011/095567 describes a system wherein a notification is sent by an appliance to a set-top box. Several different users may be notified when looking at the television. However, once they leave the room, they will fail to see or hear any notification of the connected television.